Therapeutic Approaches With Babies And Young Children In Care

Therapeutic Approaches for Babies and Young Children in Care: Observation and Attention is about the value of observation and close attention for babies and young children who may be vulnerable to psychological and attachment difficulties. Case studies explore the potential for observation-based therapeutic approaches to support caregivers, social workers, and professional networks. A third theme in the book is the roots of observation-based approaches in psychoanalytic infant observation and the contribution of these ways of working to professional training and continuing development. Using case examples, Jenifer Wakelyn illustrates observational ways of working that can be practised by professionals and family members to help children express themselves and feel understood. The interventions focus on the early stages of life in care and on the "golden thread" of relationships with caregivers. The book explores contemporary neuroscience and child development research alongside psychoanalytic theory to explore the role of attention in helping children to develop the internal continuity that sustains the personality and protects against the fragmenting impact of trauma. Therapeutic Approaches for Babies and Young Children in Care is written for social workers, teachers, medical staff, and other professionals whose work brings them in contact with the youngest children in care; it will also be relevant for commissioners, managers, and trainers as well as mental health clinicians who are starting to work with children in care. It will provide a valuable insight into the lives of infants and young children in the care system and the applications of psychoanalytic infant observation.

The diverse challenges that clinicians and children's workers tasked with safeguarding babies and young children face are complex, and this unique book looks at effective, practice-based and evidence-informed approaches to working across a wide range of issues. It outlines relevant theory and good practice, gathering case examples from around the world to illustrate what interventions look like in direct practice. Leading contributors address a wide range of challenges, including babies and very young children who have a serious illness, have complex diagnoses, or have been exposed to violence or adversity in early childhood. This is an essential guide for those who work to support and safeguard the welfare of babies and very young children, including professionals in health care, social work, mental health and child protection settings, as well as paediatricians, child psychologists and child psychiatrists.

This book applies psychoanalytic insight to work with children and adolescents in a changing, often traumatic, world. Each chapter considers how psychoanalysis can develop and be developed, assessing how in the modern world, psychological disturbance and psychological trauma is manifest in new, unfamiliar ways. From new and different social and technological realities, to the internet, and new sexual discourse, each chapter explores how the analyst can hold onto fundamental psychoanalytic understandings of mental functioning, address the young patient’s or family’s need for containment, while respecting the importance of drives, the varieties of psychosexuality, and the powerful impact of anxiety on psychological development. In relation to children, these authors disclose the potential destructiveness of impingements from adults on a precious, vulnerable development. This collection is essential reading for all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists, as well as other health and educational professionals working with children and adolescents.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

This book describes the particular approach to clinical work with under fives that has been developed at the Tavistock Clinic. It sets out new approaches in the understanding and treatment of psychological disturbance in children, adolescents, and adults, both as individual and in families.

This innovative book brings together a wide range of therapeutic approaches, techniques and models to outline recent developments in the practice of supporting children in out-of-home care. It sheds light on the significance of schools, sports and peer relationships in the lives of traumatized children. It also draws particular attention to the vital importance of taking into account children's cultural heritage, and to the growing prevalence of relative care. Each chapter is set out by acclaimed and world-renowned contributors' specific approach, such as Dan Hughes and his work on conceptual maps and Cathy Malchiodi and her research on creative interventions, and gives practical ways to support children and carers. It also includes contributions from Bruce Perry, Allan Schore and Martin Teicher. This comprehensive volume will open new avenues for understanding how the relationship between child and carer can create opportunities for change and healing.

In this new edition Blake gives a personal account of his professional experience of working with children and adolescents over the last 45 years. Providing a wonderful integration of the conceptual and the practical, this book clarifies complex theory while giving practical advice for clinicians through a nuts and bolts description of how to interview parents, emotionally assess a child and adolescent, set up a consulting room and conduct a therapy session. The addition of chapter summaries, questions and suggested further readings provides a valuable structure to those in child and adolescent training programmes. The author’s experience, gained from public and private work, is vividly described with the use of clinical examples to illustrate his thinking and way of working. This third edition highlights his evolution from a more traditional epistemological (knowing) approach, with its emphasis on interpretation and insight, to a more ontological (being) framework. He explores a more intuitive and unconscious way of working and argues this is more developmentally appropriate to children and adolescents. His accessible writing style transports the reader into his clinical world: a world full of fascinating stories of children talking through their play; of adolescents exploring who they are through their discussions about music, films, sport and computer games; of helping parents to understand and thoughtfully manage their child’s emotional struggles. This new edition, an amalgam of theoretical orientations (Kleinian, Bionian, Winnicottian, relational, non-linear and neurological), draws from recent developments, both in theory and technique. It will be of immense value to psychotherapists, psychoanalysts and all those involved in the treatment of children’s mental health.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.